Wednesday, August 25, 2010

After a solid week of strong wind on the southern Oregon coast, we woke up Friday to much lighter conditions. Admittedly, the weather had really come through up to this point. The spring season on the Oregon coast had been a wash out (cloudy, rainy, south wind, yikes!) right up until the last week. But the north pacific high had finally punched through the gloom and produced seven straight days of sun and wind along with decent NW waves. All we needed now was a few more days of wind to finish the bash in style.

The second day gave us first day losers a chance to redeem ourselves. And some of us really needed that. I for one did nothing in my first heat. It's not like I was expecting to win the division or anything close to that. I just wanted to catch one wave ride and get a decent jump. Land a forward. Anything! And then I'd be happy. Someone else who wasn't satisfied with their first day result was my friend Royn. As he put it, he was a bit shell shocked over his first heat debacle and really wanted to get his confidence back and show a decent result.

So with that we headed back to PR with some determination. And just like the day before, the wind picked up a definite notch as we rounded the cape. Still light, but people were at least moving on their land boards on the smooth sand. Which was promising. I decided to de-rig the 4.0 which had not worked for me the previous day, and rigged up my shiny 2010 5.3 Goya Guru. I had experienced some epic wave days with this sail during the late winter and spring season in Maui, and I could still feel the positive vibes coming from it.

The consolation (aka losers) bracket means anyone who lost a heat gets another chance. The sooner you were out the previous day meant the sooner you would be back on the second. In other words, you had to win more heats to stay alive. Once you lost again you were done for the show. That's why this is also called a double elimination contest. You have to lose twice to be truly lost. This also meant that Royn and I would be up as soon as the wind filled in. By noon the wind was hitting 20 or so, and the bash was on.

Fortunately Royn and I were in different heats to start the day. Just like the previous day I got to watch Royn compete first. It also helped that I didn't have to immediately go against one of the better sailors in my division. So Royn's heat starts and soon he was catching a nice ride on his first wave, hitting the lip several times and deftly working his way down the line. His only mistake might have been going a bit too far down the line. And going for one last lip smack as the wave closed out in the shallow water. Too shallow as I noticed he was tumbled by the shore break. Which promptly broke his mast. Dooh!

As Royn was dragging his broken rig onto the beach, Rick Whidden, who was competing in the next heat (my heat) ran down the beach with his own rig to assist Royn. Rick happens to be a product manager for Maui Sails for whom Royn is a team rider, so Rick's rig worked fine for Royn. However a lot of heats must be run to complete a double elimination match, and that combined with the late start to wait for the wind meant that today's heats were only six minutes long. By the time Rick and Royn had exchanged rigs and Royn got back out his heat was over and mine had started.

Rick was competing in my heat but he was now way down the beach helping Royn, and Royn was out to sea with Rick's rig. Royn came back fairly quick but this put Rick in a huge time and location disadvantage relative to the rest of us starting up by the judges stand. Also I wasn't sure if Royn's one wave ride, awesome as it was, would be enough to advance him. But I had my own concerns to deal with now.

I had only one goal at this moment. My 5.3 was definitely powered up, giving me the opportunity to throw a forward on the first good ramp I saw. Actually this is a poor competitive strategy - the short heats only counted two waves and one jump with a 3x multiplier on the waves. So wave rides were way more important then jumps. But I didn't care! I was worried that I wouldn't land any loops in competition so I had to do it right away. When I hit the first juicy wave I pulled the trigger. I didn't land it perfectly, in fact I over rotated and ended in the drink (OK so I was way powered up and a bit over amped) but I didn't care. I was psyched! It's a bit fuzzy now but I think I got out and caught a bit of a wave ride coming in and then the heat was over. Six minute heats are really short! No matter - there were only three sailors in this heat and Rick had sacrificed himself to assist Royn, so I was definitely advancing to the next round. I also found out that Royn's one wave ride did the job and he advanced as well. In the next heat I was able to throw and land clean a couple of loops and managed another decent wave ride, and so I advanced again.

Royn also won his heat. This put me into the third round in a heat with Royn, Dwight Bode, and Jeff McVannel. Now at this point I had accomplished my goals for this event and I was pretty stoked. I landed a few forwards in a competition, I managed a decent wave ride or two, and I had advanced a couple of heats. My fellow sailors were all now well skilled and definitely more experienced in the local conditions then I was. The wind had also kicked up significantly and I was contemplating going with the 4.5 for this heat. But the 5.3 Goya had served me well up to that point so I stuck with it. All I recall from this heat is being way overpowered on the outside, and on a wave ride (maybe my only ride) a gust ripped the sail out of my hands on a top turn. So I didn't advance, but no matter... it was all good from here on. But Royn did advance and, considering how bad his competition started, it was pretty cool to see him doing so well.

Royn's next heat in the masters division had him going out with Dana Miller, James Lundin, and Jeff McVannel. Now these are all great guys and really good confident local wave sailors. I had connections with Dana going back to my earliest days of sailing in Cape Hatteras so many years ago. I was psyched to see these guys, some of them actually my age (!), out there ripping it up. I watched this heat closely and when it was over I thought Royn, mostly because of his more advanced aerials (he was landing backs and forwards) did well enough to advance. And I told him that as soon as he came in. But everyone in his heat had great wave rides so it going to be close.

I was hovering by the scoring table when the results came in - Royn had the third best score of 178 points while James was second with 178.5. Meaning Royn did not advance by a mere .5 out of 178. Wow! I heard Matt Pritchard say something to the effect of "That's great to have such a close score, shows how competitive the heat was." Which is true. Only I couldn't shake the guilt that I told Royn he had advanced only to have him lose by such a close score. And after coming back from so far down in the bracket. Plus I really believed he had done better. Hmmm...

I felt compelled to take a look at the actual results for his heat. Now that things were well into the later brackets there wasn't much time before the next masters heat started. I wasn't trying to shake things up, but I was curious how this was scored - Royn landed some really nice loops and I didn't see any other comparable jumps in the heat. It took me awhile to find the results as they were buried in a binder with all the other scores from two days.

At this point I want to emphasize that the judging and scoring was happening in very difficult circumstances. How would you like to spend ten hours a day outside in wind blowing 20 to 40 in your face with a blinding sun, sand blasting into every orifice on your body and by the way, it was pretty cold (high around 60). And do this while watching everyone else windsurf and generally having way more fun. Then you must judge and score these people meaning you have to pay close attention to every detail for every moment you're there and everyone then second guesses you. And you do this for four days straight and not get paid. Sound like fun? OK, so judging isn't easy and overall the judges did a great job. Another difficlt task went to the scorers who had a few minutes to add the results for each heat - the formula being 3 waves x 3 + 2 jumps x 2 + 1 overall and this is added per judge (4) some of who like .5 points. Meanwhile the competitors are hovering around impatiently waiting for the results. I watched some of the scores being tallied and I can tell you - it was a difficult and un-fun task.

So I'm looking at Royn's result and I see that his wave rides scored exactly the same as James's (both were scored high) but Royn had a higher jump result, which made sense because he landed several clean loops. But he had a lower overall score. Huh? Turned out there was a small adding error, like a five instead of an eight had been punched into the calculator. I re-added the score and with that Royn had actually won his heat! I promptly alerted the authorities and just before the next master heat started Royn was back in. This was the actual result as it should have been tallied so I felt pretty good about catching that. Now it was Royn vs Dana and again both had great wave rides but I thought Royn had the edge due to his more advanced jumps - and sure enough Royn won. Woo-hoo!

By this time it was late in the day and the wind was starting to shut down for the evening. The next heat was Royn vs Atilla Tivador from Pacifica CA. Atilla had advanced to the last bracket the day before (losing to MacRea Wylde in the final) and was a very experienced wave sailor. It should have been a very competitive heat but Royn was still on his 4.7 and was unfortunately now under powered and couldn't do much. Atilla had better rides and took the win, thus advancing for the final rematch vs MacRae. This meant Royn finished 3rd in the masters - pretty good considering he lost the first heat on day one and broke his mast on his first wave ride today. Nice comeback!

Now the competition had to be stopped for the lack of wind. The experts had not yet decided who would challenge Kevin Pritchard in the final showdown. Kai Katchadourian and Whit Poor had gone head to head to see who would go against Francisco for that privilege, with Kai taking a very close win. Also Allemand Emanuele had clawed up the loser side of the amateur division and would be taking on Lars Bergstrom in that final. But the other divisions were all settled: Zane Schweitzer winning the junior and Ingrid Larouche getting the woman title. So there was still another day needed to tidy everything up. The question was - would there be any wind left?

Below are more pictures from the competition - all courtesy of Trudy Lary and from her Wave Bash photos album. Go there to see even more great shots from this event. And as you can see, the skill level of the competitors was really high (literally).

Sunday, August 15, 2010

On the first day of the competition I woke up feeling a touch anxious. Not only was this my first wave sailing event, but I was an Oregon coast wave rookie. I've windsurfed many waves in Maui (mostly Kanaha), so I figured or hoped I wouldn't be a total kook. But the whole cold water, on shore wind combined with shore break waves was an altogether new experience to me. In reality I had no idea what to expect. And my very first sailing in these conditions was going to pretty much be during my first heat. Yikes!

Editors note - I know it's taking forever to publish these stories. Blame it on 16 consecutive windy days here in the Gorge. Not good for productivity... but very good for fun!

I should also mention that when I originally signed on I was going to be in the "grand master" division, meaning 50+. In that scenario I figured that there would be something like four of us oldsters competing and we'd have a few heats among us friends and even if I finished last I'd still be in fourth place - not so bad! However to expedite the event, the grand master and master divisions were consolidated, with the age limit now set to 40. Well, one shouldn't be concerned with exact results in these events (I told myself) and the mere fact that my division was suddenly way more competitive was a good thing. Right? But realizing that I was now up against much younger and yet way more experienced dudes - and I was most likely the only competitor who had never touched the Oregon ocean - didn't help my mental state.

After a Gold Beach camp ground style breakfast (eggs, pancakes, lots of syrup) we headed south for PR. Like almost every other part of the Oregon coast, this drive offers spectacular scenery. Just south of Gold Beach, Cape Sebastian rises almost 700 ft straight up from the ocean. From the overlooking parking lot you get a fantastic view of the south coast, including all of Pistol River. What a great spot to check out the conditions!

In this shot (click to enlarge) you can just see the cars parked on the highway in the distance, and "the rock" (small rock on the beach past all the really big rocks in the water) where the event took place. PR is about 10 minutes total drive from Gold Beach and if you don't like car camping, Gold Beach has plenty of restaurants and motel options. One thing I noticed was that the wind, which seemed quite light at breakfast, picked up significantly south of the Cape. It's as if the Cape itself provides a venturi which focuses the wind. At any rate, it was looking like a windy day for sure. And arriving at the parking area, it was great to see so many people we knew.

There was a lot of rigging already going on. And this was one of the challenges to competing here. I had my usual gorge sails - North Ice 4.0 and 4.5, along with a newer 5.3 Goya Eclipse (same sail I used in Maui). Now I know that PR can be very windy, but unlike the Gorge, which has strong current pushing you up wind, PR has a strong current taking you down to "boss land" - where you don't want to go . Plus there's a nasty shore break you don't want to be slogging over. So what to rig? Since it seemed like a typical windy PR day was shaping up, I rigged both a 4.0 & a 4.5.

Then we all gathered for the skipper meeting up in the dunes. Matt Pritchard explained the rules, which to me sounded more or less like this - "go there, and if something gets in your way, turn" - and the heats were then posted. We headed to the beach and the competition quickly got underway. The goal for the day was to run all the heats for all the divisions - almost 40 heats! This would be a double elimination event, so all losers would get a second chance. However if the weather was to take a sudden dive, today's results would be final. Thus the push to finish all the single emimination heats on the first day.

Heats were 8 minutes long plus 2 minute transitions. The top three wave rides counted, plus the top two jumps, and an overall impression. I didn't realize it then, but waves were counted 3x, jumps 2x, and overall 1x. So obviously one or two great wave rides could be a huge factor in the score. A few of us were mistakenly thinking for most of the day that these were all weighted equal - maybe I should have paid closer attention to Matt. Anyway I could see there would be many rounds before my heat came up, so I had time to get my feet wet. Julia, who by the way could not compete due to a sprained MCL she suffered just a few days earlier (major bummer!), took some shots of the early action, including my warm up.

I warmed up on my 4.5 and had a quick but fun session. I had to admit after the warm up I was feeling confident I could at least catch a decent wave or two here. Meanwhile the women and junior divisions ran and, as you can see from the last few photos above, Francisco Goya had just arrived on the scene and was on the water. It was great seeing Francisco's smiling face here (along with his lovely wife and kids). Plus Kevin Pritchard and Francisco were eventually to go head to head for some great competitive wave sailing.

The master heats now started and I had a chance to watch our good friend Royn Bartholdi in action. Royn, as I mentioned in an earlier post, organized the Freestyle Frenzy at the Hatch a few years back. This was a huge effort on Royn's part and was a super well run event. Royn has also helped many a beginner free style sailor learn a few tricks - he was instrumental in my learning heli-tacks and, later on, forwards. He also provided a few tips on sailing Pistol as he had been here several days prior to the event. Given all that I was curious to see how Royn would do in actual competition here - and during the warm ups he was getting some great rides. So Royn heads out on his first reach of the heat and on one of the bigger waves throws a huge forward loop. Really huge! So big that he over rotated a bit and didn't quite land it. Now his rig is away from him and immediately another big wave drops on top of him and his rig. This forces Royn into a long swim to retrieve his gear when another big wave catches him. At this point the current has taken him far downwind and his gear is practically on the beach. Eventually he gets to it and get out past the break, but it's a long reach out and, he's almost back to the judging area when.. his heat ends. Needless to say Royn didn't advance. In retrospect a some of us Gorge dudes put too much effort into throwing huge aerials when we should have gone for sure bet wave rides. But hey, looping is fun! I'm also thinking that it's easy to get screwed by the shore break and the strong current here, considering how short the heats are. One big swim and you're done!

Now I'm getting psyched for my quicky arriving heat. I got my 4.5 rigged, and I go for the secret weapon. I might have mentioned that I really hate cold water, and it turns out that the Oregon ocean, and Pistol River in particular, is really cold! That is rarely warmer than 50... especially when it's windy, which is exactly when we would normally be there. So a few weeks earlier I got an email from a company called Thermo-pad regarding a special wet suit heating pad they wanted me to test. They subsequently sent me their "scuba special" heating pads to try out. This allows you to put a heating pad inside your wet suit that stays heated to 130 F for at least one hour (or longer depending how cold the water is). It's chemically activated by flexing a tiny metal plate in the pad and can be reactivated indefinitely. It's hard to describe exactly how this works, so check out this video. But trust me, it works like a champ and is a great thing to have in cold water.

So I activate my thermo pad to a toasty 130 and this goes inside my wet suit. I also drink a red bull. Now I'm practically sweating, I've got my 4.5 rigged and ready on the beach, the wind is coming on strong and I'm ready, like really really ready to go! Woo-hoo!! And that's when they announce that the event is taking a break. A long break. They decided to move the judging stands from the dunes down to the beach (by the rock). At the same time they're getting lunch for all the judges. So there I was, all dressed up and no where to go. I could have gone for some more warm up sailing, but I hadn't had lunch myself and was pretty hungry. So I took out the thermo pad (which I could not re-activate on the beach) and sat down to chill. Meanwhile there was a lot more action on the water while the wind and waves kept on building.

Finally the judge's stand has been moved and everyone is ready again. Well, except me. I spent the last hour sitting there getting more anxious and a bit cold as the wind picked up. At the last second I decided to run back to the dunes and grab my 4.0. And this was going on my "magic Maui" quad fin board - a custom board shape which is perfect for riding big Maui style waves. Now in retrospect, considering the strong current and on shore wind aspect of PR, I might have been better off with my wave one Goya (a faster planing on shore free-wave board). But that's what I had so that's what I rode. I quickly rigged this up and got to the start of my heat.

The flag went up, the heat was on, and out I went. Only I wasn't really going. More like slogging. Oops! The wind wasn't as strong as I thought or the current was a lot stronger. Either way I wasn't moving so quick. The first two guys in my heat to get going, Jeff McVannel and MacRae Wylde, quickly and easily made it out over the waves and were soon on them. But I was still in slog-ville when it seemed like a larger set showed up. I barely made it over the first wave but didn't quite get over the last and of course largest one. Once down in the cold water (did I mention I hate cold water) I got rinsed a few times and I did some swimming to get my gear. Finally I popped the sail up and managed to get going and once out beyond the break was decently powered up. But I was also way downwind. So I took a really long reach out and jibed and checked my watch. 6 minutes had already elapsed and I was way outside. Dooh!! I headed up wind as best I could and caught a decent wave coming in, but I could only manage a few wimpy up the line turns - I was still trying to get close to the judges - when the horn sounded and the heat and my first day was history. The pictures below show some of this "action". I didn't need to check the results to know I wasn't going anywhere. The biggest bummer was I didn't get a chance to try a forward, one of the few wave tricks I can manage. I wasn't powered enough going over the waves to do anything but hope to make it out. So I vowed to do two things in my next (losers bracket) heat: first - I would not rig too small and second - I would throw a forward on my first chance, no matter what! But that would all have to wait for another day.

Meanwhile the heats moved on. The junior division was very competitive, with Bernd Rodenger and Zane Schwiter eventually going head to head (Zane winning a close final heat). In the womans division, Ingrid won every heat (no surprise) and threw down some moves and wave rides that would have won heats against the boys. And the other competitors (Chris, Fiona, and Tanya) performed very well in challenging conditions. In the amateur bracket, Lars Bergstrand showed that experience counts as he won all of his heats. And as for the Pros - all I can say is "what a show"! While it might seem pre-ordained that the two most experienced wave competitors, Francisco and Kevin, both having won many events during their illustrious careers, would end up in the finals, it was by no means assured. The competition was fierce as almost all the top sailors from the Gorge made it down for this event, along with a few Maui sailors. Eventually Kevin and Francisco did end up in the final heat of the day, and Kevin won a very close match by throwing some bigger airs (including some huge one footed backs). Of course we all expected that the loser bracket would most likely bring these two guys head to head again, so that was definately something to look forward to. And I had something to prove - that I could actually sail here! With that the first day of competition closed.